SAN ANTONIO – Five new restaurants and two law firms are being planned to come online in the spring and summer at The Creamery building, a mixed-use development from local developers AREA Real Estate LLC and Embrey Partners. The variety of concepts planned for 875 East Ashby Place will match the Tin Top luxury apartments that are nearing completion on the top floors of the building.
They would also increase the variety of restaurants in the Tobin Hill neighborhood significantly at a time where several developers are eyeing the area for a multitude of projects.
Carabin & Shaw and Watts Guerra are both set to move into the building this summer, expecting to occupy a total of about 34,000 square feet.
The five restaurant concepts — Hook, Amelia Tapas & Wine, Lunatique, Creme Coffee and Easy Baby — all seek to offer different atmospheres and menu options, according to Moris Saide, the CEO of Only 1 Hospitality Group. The company is most well-known for the long-running Costa Pacifica seafood restaurant along Loop 1604. In 2019, he approached David Adelman, principal of AREA Real Estate, about working together. They eventually landed on The Creamery.
He told the Business Journal that he’s been working on this batch of concepts since then. In that time, each restaurant has been evolving into an ecosystem that is meant to play off one another.
“We were trying to see what were the best concepts that we could present to the area and to the city of San Antonio,” Saide said. “Something different, something very unique and something that creates an environment where all these different units could coexist without competing and cannibalizing each other.”
Hook is a seafood restaurant that is going to overlook the River Walk and evoke a tropical atmosphere. Open windows and focusing on fresh seafood is meant to contribute to that atmosphere. It will sit in-between the River Walk and the original Creamery building.
You can read about the other restaurants in the full the story in the San Antonio Business Journal.
Saide said that the hardest part of the project has been implementing these modern concepts in a historic building and trying to blend the two.
“There’s so many things that you should honor and respect,” he said. “There’s so many scars that these buildings have.”
The group hopes to have each of the five restaurants open by the end of May.
Editor’s note: This story was published through a partnership between KSAT and the San Antonio Business Journal.